Really Spooky' Poem Praising Common Core Allegedly Recited by Dozens of 5th Graders

A substitute teacher in North Carolina recently sent Glenn Beck a copy of a poem that she claims roughly 80 fifth-grade students recited for their promotion ceremony (like graduation) at a school near Raleigh.

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The poem does not, as some might expect, celebrate school being done for the year, friendship, memories, or anything of the like.  Instead, it praises the virtues of the controversial "Common Core" education initiative.

The poem is titled "We Learned More With Common Core," and the phrase is repeated over and over.

It reads:

Text genre, features & theme to explore

We learned more with common core.

 

Fractions, decimals, journal prompts galore

We learned more with common core.

 

RUNNER & CUBES are strategies for

Learning more with common core.

 

Vocab words like (clouds, organs, force), & omnivore

We learned more with common core

 

Economy, government, Revolutionary war

We learned more with common core.

 

So many new concepts to explore

We learned more with common core.

"That doesn't sound like you're indoctrinating kids at all!" Beck's co-host Pat Gray said sarcastically on radio Friday.  "Like it's Soviet Russia? No, not at all!"

The teacher who sent the poem to Beck said she was alarmed by what she saw, and asked him to alert his audience about what is going on in our schools.

Complimentary Clip from TheBlaze TV

TheBlaze spoke with the substitute teacher on Friday, who preferred not to be named, and she said she has been substituting at the school for roughly seven years. She got wind of the poem when she saw the students practicing ahead of the ceremony, and got a copy from one of the many teachers who quietly disagrees with Common Core, as well.

The teacher felt it was important to make it known what is happening.

"If you're not saying anything, the parents aren't going to know, because nobody's telling them anything," she said.

The teacher declined to name the school, but said it is a Wake County school in the Raleigh area, and that the ceremony happened in June.

TheBlaze reached out to the Director of Public Relations for the school system, Renee McCoy, who said she is unaware of the poem. However, she made clear that the promotion ceremonies "are designed by the individual schools" and do not need approval at the district level. She also said there are roughly 170 schools in the district, and that it would be difficult to make inquiries without knowing specifically which school allegedly used the poem.

Common Core has faced national push-back from parents and public figures alike.

Michelle Malkin wrote that the standards "undermine local control of education, usurp state autonomy over curricular materials, and foist untested, mediocre, and incoherent pedagogical theories on America’s schoolchildren," among other objections.

TheBlaze is working on obtaining independent confirmation of the poem's recitation, as well as video.